China is pushing the Philippines `to the wall' with aggression in the South China Sea, Manila says
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A Philippine security official said Tuesday that China is “pushing us to the wall” with growing aggression in the disputed South China Sea and warned that “all options are on the table” for Manila's response, including new international lawsuits.
On Tuesday, a large Chinese coast guard ship patrolled hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal and then sailed toward the northwestern coast of the Philippines, coming as close as 77 nautical miles (143 kilometers), Philippine officials said in a news conference.
"The presence of the monster ship in Filipino waters … 77 nautical miles from our shoreline, is unacceptable and, therefore, it should be withdrawn immediately by the Chinese government,” Jonathan Malaya, assistant director-general of the National Security Council, said at the news conference alongside senior military and coast guard officials.
“You’re pushing us to the wall,” Malaya said of China. Two Philippine coast guard ships, backed by a small surveillance aircraft, repeatedly ordered the 165-meter (541-foot) Chinese coast guard ship to withdraw from the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, a 200-nautical mile (370-kilometer) stretch of water, Philippine coast guard Commodore Jay Tarriela said.
“What we’re doing there is, hour-by-hour and day-to-day, (we're) challenging the illegal presence of the Chinese coast guard for the international community to know that we’re not going to allow China to normalize the illegal deployment," Tarriela said.
There was no immediate comment from Chinese officials. In the past, they have repeatedly accused the Philippines and other rival claimant states including Vietnam and Malaysia of encroaching on what they say are “undisputed” Chinese territorial waters.
